Golfers in Need of a Bounceback in 2015

The 2015 PGA Tour season has already seen the emergence of 21-year-old phenom Jordan Spieth and the resurgence of world No. 1 Rory McIlroy after a shaky winter start. But the year hasn’t been so kind to everyone on tour.

Whether it’s the result of swing changes, the natural advance of Father Time or just a prolonged funk, some tour players have been struggling to reach their best form recently. From Hall of Fame stalwarts to younger pros, there is no shortage of recognizable names in desperate need of a bounceback this season.

There is not a common measuring stick that can be used to judge dips in form, though. (The tour features player with dozens of wins, players without a single win and players falling somewhere in between the two, after all.) Therefore, pros included in this list have been selected and judged relative to their own, respective PGA legacies.

Players with 20 career wins but none in the past year or two will find themselves on this list. Likewise, players who have managed years of consistent top-20 finishes but now find themselves regularly missing the cut have also earned a place here. The unifying factor for everyone here, though, is that they all still have the potential to improve their form before the end of their respective careers.

With those criteria in mind, let’s first take a look at some honorable mentions who didn’t quite fit the bill and then jump right into the list of six golfers in need of a bounceback in 2015.

Honorable Mentions

Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

Rory McIlroy

The four-time major champion finished the 2014 season in incredible style. McIlroy had back-to-back-to-back wins at the Open Championship, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship in the fall. He then rounded out the calendar year by tying for fifth at the Deutsche Bank Championship, tying for eighth at the BMW Championship and tying for second at the Tour Championship.

If this list only included the first few months of the 2015 season, then McIlroy’s missed cut, T-9 and T-11 finishes would have earned him a spot on this list for falling well off his 2014 pace. However, he quickly bounced back with wins at the WGC-Cadillac and Wells Fargo Championship to earn his redemption.

Zach Johnson

A cursory glance at the last three-and-a-half years of Zach Johnson’s professional career will tell you all you need to know about why he was a borderline choice for this list. In 2012, he had two wins, two second-place finishes and six top 10s. In 2013, he had one win, one second, one third and eight top 10s. In 2014, he had one win, one second, one third and five top 10s.

This year, however, Johnson has only registered five top-10 finishes. He has also already tied his personal worst for most missed cuts in a year (four) since 2008. Johnson’s performances over the last few years have set a high bar, making it seem like 2015 is something of a slump so far.

However, the fact that he is still on pace to meet (or surpass) his average yearly tally of both top-10 and top-25 finishes from those years has saved him from actually making this list.

Martin Laird

To evaluate the Scotsman’s slump—and, by extension, his hypothetical need for a bounceback—we have to look at his career with a broad lens similar to the one we used for Zach Johnson. Laird turned pro in 2004 and had a pretty consistent career from 2009 to 2013.

In 2014, though, he had a significant drop in form, ending the year without any top-three finishes (and with only one top 10).

Like McIlroy, however, Laird has earned an exemption from this list thanks to positive play so far in 2015. He has already registered a pair of top-10 finishes and nearly doubled his earnings from last season, so he has also won a reprieve from this list.

Phil Mickelson

Andrew Redington/Getty Images

To be clear, Lefty has not been playing badly this year. In fact, considering he tied for fourth at the Wells Fargo Championship, tied for third at the FedEx St. Jude Classic and tied for second at the Masters, most players on tour would be happy to trade places with him this season.

However, when we look at the bigger picture, it becomes clear Mickelson hasn’t been living up to his winning potential of late.

Lefty’s most recent victory came at the Open Championship in 2013, meaning it has been approximately two years since he last lifted a trophy. Considering he won at least one event every year from 2004 to 2013, Mickelson’s two-year (and counting) drought is something of a surprising development.

Even the Golf Channel experts here have been caught way off guard trying to predict his next win. 

It’s true he is 45 years old and undeniably moving into the twilight of his PGA Tour career, so this may just be the first sign of his inevitable decline. However, if Mickelson wants to prolong his time on tour in the style to which his fans have grown accustomed, he’ll have to bounce back with a win sooner rather than later.

Tiger Woods

What? You thought we’d leave Mr. Woods off this list just because he hasn’t been his legendary self since 2008? Not a chance (remember, everything is relative, even for Tiger).

The former No. 1 may have dropped all the way to No. 195 in the world rankings, but it’s not like he hasn’t rebounded before.

He had an atrocious drought (by his pre-2009 standards) during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, when he managed just four top-10 finishes in total. But Tiger recovered with three tour wins in 2012 (chronicled in the above video) and another five in 2013. He still wasn’t challenging Jack Nicklaus’ major record, but he had certainly rebounded.

Now Woods in the midst of another lengthy dry spell spanning two years. Since the start of 2014, he has played just 12 events and registered only two top-25 finishes. You need look no further than Rory McIlroy’s PGA Tour video game cover to see Woods’ general clout in the sport has also been waning.

On one hand, Tiger may be forgiven somewhat for his most recent performances, considering the injuries he has suffered. However, he needs to bounce back at least to his 2012-13 form if he wants the last five to 10 years of his PGA tour career to be anything but tragic.

Martin Kaymer

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

The 30-year-old German is well off the phenomenal pace he set last season. In 2014, Kaymer won both the Players Championship and the U.S. Open. He also earned four top-10 finishes and eight top 25s.

You could argue last year was something of a fluke and, therefore, should not be used to judge Kaymer harshly in the context of his full career. However, even when you consider his 2014 finishes to be an anomaly, it was still the third consecutive year in a generally positive trend for the man from Dusseldorf.

In 2012, he had one top-10 finish and made six cuts. The following year, he had three top 10s and made 14 cuts. Then, in 2014, Kaymer had two victories, four top-10 finishes and made 15 cuts. Even without those two victories, it’s still an overwhelmingly positive three-year trend.

Then came 2015. 

Kaymer has already played as many events as he did in 2012, and he is already one made cut short of his total tally from three years ago. Though a return to last year’s form may be too much to ask, he’ll be hoping he doesn’t go back to settling for just one top-10 finish each year.

Given that Kaymer likely still has more than a decade left in his professional career, the difference between achieving greatness and remaining average will depend on his ability to sustain positive momentum over a period of years.

A perfect start would be bouncing back in the second half of 2015.

Graeme McDowell

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

From 2009 to 2014, Graeme McDowell was the epitome of sustained improvement. In 2009, he had just two top-10 finishes. In 2010, McDowell bagged his first PGA Tour win. Over the next four years, he picked up at least one top-three finish each year and managed a career-high eight top-10 finishes in 2014.

If the first half of 2015 is any indication for the rest of this season, then McDowell is taking a big step backwards.

From 2009 to 2014, he played in an average of 14.3 events per year. So far this year, McDowell has played in 10 events and registered only one top-10 finish. The 35-year-old Northern Irishman has plenty of time left in his playing prime, but much like Martin Kaymer, he would benefit immensely from maintaining the momentum he established over the last half decade.

As Tiger and Phil would surely tell them: The longer your slump lasts, the harder it is to get back to your best.

McDowell recently acknowledged he is at something of a crossroads when it comes to spending time with his family versus playing golf. “Is it that you don’t love the game anymore, or is it the fact that you just love being home with the family a bit more than normal?” he said, per Simon Lewis of the Irish Examiner.

“You’ve got to just dig in and start grinding again and go back to all the things that worked in the past,” added McDowell. “And just start enjoying the game really, I suppose. It’s hard. It’s not been fun this year, definitely been one of the tougher seasons in the last seven or eight. But I feel like I’m learning a lot from it.”

The Northern Irishman prides himself on being able to come back from bouts of adversity stronger than ever. That said, there’s every reason to believe he’ll be able to find a balance between golf and his personal life sooner rather than later.

Luke Donald

Luke Donald has played consistently well for the past decade. The 37-year-old’s best season so far was in 2011 when he won the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic to go along with two second-place and two third-place finishes.

But this year—well, by now you see where this is going.

So far in 2015, Donald has played in 12 events but only recorded one top-10 finish. He even had to play his way into the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, narrowly avoiding a playoff in the qualifier by a single stroke.

Like Graeme McDowell, Donald still has more than a few years left in his playing prime. Like many others, he’s also not a stranger when it comes to balancing his career and his family life.

“There have been moments on the course where I've been very down, disappointed and frustrated,” he said, per ESPN’s Alex Perry. “Anyone who plays this game knows how difficult it is, but having a young family and being pretty grounded, I don't take it with me when I go home. I won't let it affect my family.”

The former world No. 1 clearly has the talent and experience to play at a much higher level than he is currently. He also has the self-awareness and drive to give his fans hope (as noted when he describes his career goals in the above video), even though things have been rough.

“Going through all the swing changes, I got a little bit lost and too focused on my swing and spending too much time on the range,” added Donald. “There was no structure there, but I'm back on the right path and hopefully the results will turn around.”

Lucas Glover

Lucas Glover is currently ranked 431st in the world, but that number doesn’t do him justice.

From 2005 to 2011, the now-35-year-old experienced a prolonged period of success on tour. That run peaked in 2009 with a win at the U.S. Open along with a T-2 finish at Quail Hollow and a T-3 finish at the Buick Invitational.

Since 2011, though, Glover has only managed two top-10 finishes (both in 2013).

He had a knee-injury setback in 2012 and understandably went on to make just six cuts that year. Since then, his struggles have continued. Glover has managed five top-25 finishes so far this year, which is an improvement on 2014, but he also has the unfortunate distinction of tying Tiger Woods’ score at this year’s U.S. Open.

So what hope is there for Lucas Glover’s fans?

Well, he has already made six more cuts and registered four more top-25 finishes this season than he did last season. It’s not a complete turnaround, but it is a measure of reasonable improvement that can be a foundation for getting back into the top 200 in world rankings in the next two years.

As noted in the introduction, bouncebacks come in all shapes and sizes relative to individual players. Glover will likely never win another major (and he’ll definitely never read another David Letterman top 10 list, as shown above), but a few more top-10 finishes are within reach—and they would serve as a welcome bookend to a fine PGA Tour career.